I MADE a fatal mistake last Saturday tea-time, which incidentally I make every time I come out of a football ground.

I tuned into a radio phone-in.

Normally I tune in, get the results and tolerate the first couple of callers before I have to turn off. But on Saturday I was so dumbfounded, so staggered by what I was hearing, I was transfixed.

David Moyes’ team selection was the subject of some withering criticism from callers and broadcasters alike, along with a certain former player.

Johnny Heitinga (pictured) was the subject of, well, there’s no other word for it than abuse.

And remarkably the current custodians of Everton Football Club came in for criticism.

I don’t need to go into how the rant went, but it included the line “just look at where this board of directors have taken our club.”

Let’s do that. Take a step back and look at a club that 10 years ago were annual strugglers, playing a brand of seriously unattractive football, with very little quality or financial worth on the field.

Since then we have seen steady progression under David Moyes and Bill Kenwright to a position where we regularly compete for European football, are belatedly recognised as a team which plays attractive – and sometimes breathtaking – football, with a squad which contains a handful of players coveted by most Premier League outfits and worth a lot of money.

Look indeed at where this board has taken our club.

At the point at which the caller made this comment, the person hosting the show surely had a duty to challenge that. That’s something else about modern phone-ins.

You do occasionally get a caller on with an interesting – not necessarily valid – point, but debate never develops.

The whole phone-in format has become a very cheap and lazy vehicle. I long for the days of Danny Baker, when the phone-in format was first introduced, when callers were informed and challenged.